A HS Coach Explains Why Some Schools May Have Passed On U-M's Kris Jenkins
The final football pledge in the Michigan Wolverines’ 12-commit wave from June 23 through July 3 came in the form of Olney (Mary.) Good Counsel three-star defensive end Kris Jenkins.
Good Counsel has long been a powerhouse for high school prospects, with Michigan having nabbed a few of them over the years (cornerback Blake Countess perhaps being the most recent example).
Jenkins helped lead his Falcons squad to a 4-2-1 record last season; the ’1’ in the tie category obviously sticks out like a sore thumb, with Good Counsel having played to a 35-35 stalemate with Archbishop Spalding on Aug. 31 last year.
The Cavaliers’ head coach, Kyle Schmitt, explained the unique situation that led to the tie, and how it helped him see how mature of a kid Jenkins truly is.
“I definitely know him well enough to say hello,” Schmitt said. “Those guys think really highly of him at Good Counsel. We had a weird situation last year where we played only a quarter against them and had the game delayed due to lightning.
“We ended up playing nearly the rest of the game and it was tied at 35-all, and it got shut down again with lightning. We wound up staying with their team at the hotel and it was obvious he was just a good kid.
“I joked around with him asking if he could stay out of our backfield, and he looked at me like I was crazy.”
Rivals.com has Jenkins rated as just a three-star, but Schmitt explained that he was perhaps a bit under recruited for a variety of reasons.
“He’s a late bloomer,” the Archbishop Spalding head man said. “I think it’s a flaw in the system the way some people write kids off if they’re not dominant as freshmen.
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